


we'll make it if it's right

by freckleder



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 16:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8851192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckleder/pseuds/freckleder
Summary: In which Kunimi quits the Quidditch team and struggles with his own doubts.





	

„I quit.“

The words left a heavy silence in the tent. The crowd outside was cheering while Akira grabbed his broomstick, not even bothering to change, and walked past his silent teammates out of the door.

\--

The next morning Akira woke up at sunrise. He got dressed as usual, layering his shirt, tie, sweater and robe. He winced as he crouched down to put his shoes on. He was still sore from the Quidditch match the day before. He glanced at his broomstick, haphazardly lying in the corner next to his bed. He tore his gaze away and glanced outside to check the weather. He cursed himself the moment he became aware of his habit.  

Akira quietly left the dorm so Kindaichi wouldn’t wake up. Then he carefully peeked in the common room. It was empty. He walked along swiftly, his footsteps on the stone floor echoing through the large corridors.  

The Great Hall was almost empty, only a handful students sat at their respective tables. Akira headed straight to the Slytherin table and sat down at the very end of it. He couldn’t remember when he had last been up this early on a weekday. Usually Kindaichi had to drag him out of the bed every morning, they were always the last ones to get to their morning classes.

Akira took some toast from one of the many baskets and reached for the marmalade. Hogwarts was known for their vast options when it came to food, so lots of people tried something different every day. Akira was the person that picked one thing and ate it every day until he got sick of it and switched it out for something else.

He watched the tiny flakes of herbs that escaped out of the bag floating around in his tea. Usually he’d have some company or at least an issue of the daily prophet to skim through but it was too early for the owls to arrive yet. He didn’t mind. Silence wasn’t bad when you had to ponder over something and he had a lot to consider.

He heard someone sprinting down the hall and when that person didn’t stop at any of the other tables he could tell right away who it was. A very dishevelled looking Kindaichi sat down next to him. His shirt was only buttoned up at the first two buttons and he hadn’t styled his hair properly, a few strands were hanging down in his face.

“I finally…caught up to you,” he said in between deep breaths.

“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere. Have some breakfast and calm down.”

Kindaichi regarded him with a frown. “Do you care to explain what happened yesterday? Why did you quit the Quidditch team out of nowhere?”

“New rule if you want to hang out with me: no Quidditch talk. I don’t want to talk about it, not with you or any other member of the team.”

“If this is about losing last match then-“

“Kindaichi, please. I wasn’t lying when I said that just now.”

“Fine. Do you have plans for later, we’ve got a lot of free time today.”

“I’ll probably spend most time at the library, I’m behind with homework. You can join me if you want to.”

\--

Akira woke up with a sudden jolt. The piece of parchment he had been writing on was wrinkled. Ink was smudged on his face. He was sitting in the most hidden corner of the library that he had labelled as ‘his spot’ in his mind, yet he wasn’t alone.

Oikawa sat on the other side of the table, illuminating the room with the white light of his wand. He had already expected him to show up, though he assumed that Oikawa would be waiting for him in the common room.

“If you are here to convince me to come back then you can leave right away. I won’t.” Kunimi’s voice was cold but he looked away when he was talking to his now former captain.

“That’s not my plan. I’m here because I’m making my rounds as a prefect, the library closed fifteen minutes ago.”

“Oh. Then I suppose I should gather my things.”

He screwed the cap of his inkpot shut and crammed it along with his quill and a stack of parchment paper in his bag. He felt Oikawa’s heavy gaze on him but he didn’t say anything. Akira divided the books in two stacks, those that he wanted to return and those that he planned to borrow.

“You don’t have to wait for me,” Akira finally said.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” Oikawa always spoke with a familiar playfulness that Akira had learned not to underestimate.

“Really, you can leave,” he pressed.

Oikawa raised an eyebrow. “So you don’t want to come back, yet you feel guilty for doing so?”

Akira pushed the books aside and finally returned Oikawa’s look. “This isn’t some weird ego trip, I don’t want you all to keep running after me and begging me to come back. I have enough to do with studying for my O.W.L.s so I don’t have time for this.”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re sleeping in the library,” Oikawa said while he spun his wand around with his fingers. “I have my N.E.W.T.s this year and I didn’t quit.”

“Yes but you...” Akira stopped himself. There had been a thought at the back of his mind for a while now but he wasn’t sure whether he should say it out loud. It would only confirm his doubts.

Oikawa raised both of his eyebrows and looked at him with an expectant expression. “I…?”

“You want this more. More than I do.”

“Alright. If you _really_ think so, then there is no point in talking about this anymore.” Oikawa got up and with a twirl of his wand one of the bookstacks on the desk rose. “You better come with me or you’ll get in trouble for staying outside of the common room past the curfew.”

He walked down the long corridor, the books floating next to him. Akira picked the second stack of books up and followed him. He would have imagined the library to be dead quiet after the curfew but along with the rustling of their cloaks and their footsteps was also the creaking of bookshelves, groaning under the weight of the myriad books.

Oikawa motioned to the large table at the entrance of the library, where the stack of books dropped down. Akira kept his stack of books and they walked back to the Slytherin common room. He would have expected there to be an awkward silence but Oikawa chatted with him all the way back, like the conversation they just had hadn’t happened.

Oikawa put his things down at one of the tables, he would study before going to bed. Akira was done with looking at textbooks for the day, so he wished him a good night and left for his dorm room.

“Maybe you want to come and watch us practice on the weekend, now that you aren’t part of the team anymore.”

Oikawa’s words stuck with Akira.

He regarded the broomstick, still lying in the same corner as in the morning. A poster of Akira’s and Kindaichi’s favourite Quidditch team was hanging in between their beds.

They stuck with him during the herbology lesson the next day were he absentmindedly plucked all the leaves off the dittany instead of a handful like they were supposed to. They stuck with him when Kindaichi got up early in the morning on Saturday to get ready for their Quidditch practice and didn’t tell him to hurry up and get in his Quidditch robes.

After a slow breakfast Akira tried to study but he kept seeing the blurs of green robes chasing each other around the field out of the corner of his eyes. Of course he hadn’t deliberately chosen a window place so he could watch them play, he was simply curious about the new player and how they fit into the team.

He waited for them to finish their training so he could join them and have lunch with Kindaichi. Having an early breakfast by himself was one thing, but he didn’t mind conversation partners during lunch.

Before he could ask him how the training went he heard Oikawa’s voice right next to his other side.

“Why didn’t you come to the field and watch us play? I’m sure the view must’ve been terrible from the castle.”

“How are you even able to tell that I was watching you. I just happened to sit by a window and glance out from time to time.” Akira frowned.

“So you _did_ watch us.”

Akira clicked his tongue. He should’ve known better than to fall for that but except for Oikawa’s comment everyone else was strangely quiet. Nobody approached him or asked him to come back but Kindaichi kept glancing over to Oikawa so he already figured who the cause of that was.

\--

It took Akira two more weeks, and the match of the Slytherin team versus the Gryffindor team approaching, to get up early in the morning during a weekday and head for a place that was forbidden for students to enter.

He walked up an endless number of stairs. 207 to be precise. He had counted them in an attempt to convince the person he was about to meet how ridiculous that spot as a discussion place was, yet here he was again.

Oikawa sat in the middle of the Astronomy Tower, with a quill in his hands and parchment paper spread everywhere. He turned around when he heard footsteps. For a moment he just stared at Akira, who hadn’t prepared what he was going to say and returned his gaze.

“So, I assume you’ve come because you want to tell me something?”

To Akira’s surprise he didn’t seem victorious, like Akira had finally given in, instead he looked at him like he always did when something had peeked his interest.

Akira took a deep breath. “I’ve mulled it over and over in my mind but I think I want to play again.”

“Kunimi, slow down. Why don’t we sit down like we always do and you tell me what’s on your mind?”

Akira nodded. Oikawa patted the place next to him and Akira sat down. They had spent many evenings here, going over strategies for the upcoming matches. Oikawa did most of the planning, but he always asked for Akira’s opinion. They would ponder and bounce ideas off each other and change strategies and laugh.

“I don’t know what happened after we lost that match. I just thought…maybe you all are more invested in this than me. I hate getting up early, or playing when it’s pouring, and sometimes Quidditch feels more like a chore than something I enjoy.” Akira bit the inside of his cheek. He knew that he had no influence on his feelings yet he felt guilty for feeling that way.

Oikawa gave his statement some thought. “Despite that, you still got up early in the morning and practiced in the pouring rain with everyone else. You weren’t the only one that wanted to go back to the warm common room and hole up for the rest of the day. Everyone feels like that. Even me,” he added and sighed. “Where did your change of heart come from?”

“I thought about it and I missed Quidditch. Suddenly when I stopped playing I realized that playing in the pouring rain didn’t matter if it meant we could pull off the manoeuvre that we had planned the day before.” He looked outside and watched some owls circling the Owlery.

Oikawa gave him a clap on his back. “Alright, then welcome back to the team.”

Akira looked at him with an incredulous expression. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Thank you.”

“I knew that you wouldn’t quit. You want this as much as everyone else, the only one that’s doubting that is you.” He flashed Akira a smile. “I told everyone else to hold back from talking to you because that was a decision you consciously had to make by yourself and you did.”

“I guess you know me better than myself, then.” The smallest hint of a smile tugged at the corners Akira’s mouth.

Then all of a sudden Oikawa clapped his hands together and pushed himself off the cold floor. “Enough chit-chat, we wasted almost two weeks doing nothing. We need to start coming up with a plan to defeat Gryffindor and I can’t do that without my very capable and reliable advisor by my side. Would you do me the honour?”

He held a hand out to Akira.

“It would be my pleasure,” he replied.

Then he took his hand and let himself be pulled up.   

 

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at writing Oikuni, I hope I did them justice.
> 
> I tried using their first to adress each other since this is technically seen a western au but it didn't feel right.  
> The curfew at Hogwarts is 10pm and the library closes at 8pm, but let's pretend that wasn't the case and the times actually matched up.


End file.
